Today happened to be the millionth time someone discussed the local news with me and I was left out, leaving the person say: “you should start reading news”. Well, I have stopped reading and watching local news since I can’t remember when. I try to keep myself updated every time, but only from my discussions with my dad and colleagues. This fact is pretty shocking to anyone who knows me, as I’m normally this resourceful person.

I have my reasons for this:

The news is too dramatic. I don’t know if it’s the matter of the TV channels trying so hard to get their ratings up or the reporters cannot get high quality news to report on, but I feel that most of the time the news is too dramatic. I agree that a headline should attract people, but not with too much additional drama into it that I can’t differentiate the truth to the “seasonings”.

The news is too repetitive. I know that it’s impossible to get new information in the count of hours (for TV news), but the way they’re repeating it is kinda sickening. For example when a public figure passed away, all channels would show the same news about the figure’s roles when he was alive, how he died, and so on and so forth that it’s so boring. No one would report on the different side of him.

The news is meaningless. I often spend my time on the plane reading newspapers and find myself disappointed with the content. In later days, the news is getting more and more meaningless that after I finish reading the last page I don’t feel like I’m gaining something. The newspapers are reporting something, giving people information, but that’s it – no additional value from reading them.

The news is (somehow it feels like) scripted. The older generation would say that we are lucky today to be able to get press freedom, but the truth is the freedom itself feels binding. Behind all those news, I believe there’s one guy who’s directing everyone. He’s the one who directs what the media should focus on and what they shouldn’t. The speed at which the media’s focus on one topic redirected to another is always unbelievably fast that people would forget the former as soon as the latter takes the spotlight.

So I’m focusing myself on technology news and international ones today. Happy May day! 🙂

Holla! Pardon me for being absent for it’s-too-long-I’m-keeping-track-no-more. The main reason to that is that somehow I can’t connect to WordPress anymore from work. Dang! (I really hope that my bosses, clients and colleagues are not reading this post. LOL. I need some refreshing sometimes from work and blogging is was a quick way to do that. Now my only distraction is coffee. 😦 I’m a caffeine slave.) The secondary reasons are a lot of excuses I’m making myself, starting from “I got no inspiration” days to “my life is too boring” days.

I remember someone from work asked me (and a group of colleagues sitting together) during lunch one day: what is the first thing that you notice from others?

Some people (mostly guys) mentioned body posture, some answered face, and I showed them a blood type comic that I got earlier. It says that people notice others (in this case, guys notice girls) differently, according to the blood type. (I can’t find it on Google..) The blood type comic was proved to be wrong, though, as first notice really is subjective to the person. My answer really was “the most unique feature of the person’s body, most of the time from the neck and above“.

For those who know me, they would know how much I ignore people around me if they are also ignoring me in the first place (I can be really mean not to see people walking pass me if they also don’t talk to me). On the other hand, when they start getting my attention, I pay attention to every detail. I got to know a girl back in my uni year, we were in a group so we worked together for a week or so, without me knowing that she actually has a twin sister. The next occasion I, still didn’t know that she has a twin sister, saw someone who looked exactly like her walking pass me without greeting me. I’d known that she was a different person after taking a look at her face, because they’re different. That’s how detail I am. Again, I don’t really pay attention to my surroundings it sometimes is depressing others.

I met an old friend last weekend and he was coming with his 4-year-old son. Do you know what’s so special about kids? They are honest. And ignorant to those they don’t fond of, without any ignored adults feeling offended.

Ignorance is Bliss(image taken from theinspiredminds.com)

This then came to mind: every adult has his childish side, it’s only a matter of ‘how much’ that decides his maturity. Of course, in case of ignorance, an adult will feel offended when he’s ignored by a fellow adult.

In order for us not to be ignorant, we need to keep in mind that nobody likes to be ignored – pay attention, especially to those you care for: what they say and what they do – but that doesn’t mean that you meddle in all their problems as well. Again, privacy is important. Unless someone’s your spouse, I’m pretty sure no one likes it when somebody else is shadowing his/her life (well, even if she’s your spouse, I’m sure she still needs some privacy).

Being mature means you can balance your care with your ignorance when it comes to others.

My sister, the best friend who knows me the best (and would frequently hate me for being me), has always labelled me as being the stingy big sister. Lately, however, she was quite shocked with my desire to purchase branded, pricey fashion items (she wasn’t so shocked when I decided to buy an iPhone since she knows well enough that I’m a geek). I’m still stingy, but I’m spendy. Lol. Not all items worth the high price, IMO.

Here are the items that I think worth buying at expensive price (and every woman at the age of over 25 should have):

1. Leather wallet that can hold up all your notes, coins, and cards (I know we girls like to keep discount and membership cards other than those credit cards 😉 ).

2. Leather pumps for work which you’re feeling comfortable to walk in. (I’m a girl who believes that it’s not worth to buy those fancy bling-bling pumps which you can only wear to a party or social events.)

Leather pumps for work that are comfortable for everyday wear(image source: coolspotters.com)

3. Branded tote bag that can hold all those things you take here and there without hurting your shoulder.

6. Basic beauty products that don’t cause your face to rash and pimpled: cleanser, toner, moisturizer, and foundation. This one is a bit tricky as every woman has her own suitable product that might not be suitable for others.

7. Gold earrings, necklace with beautiful pendant, bracelet, and ring that you can wear every time, everywhere. My tip for this one is to take some time to browse around the stores to find the one you feel most wearable before deciding to purchase. Oh, and don’t forget to get the certificate so you can re-sell them if you’d like.

Lately everyone’s being so conscious about environment issues, but I don’t see it in Indonesia.. or is it just me being in a strange part of Jakarta? Does anyone still remember that today, 22 April, is Earth day?

Even though the celebration worldwide is on 22 April, the environment consciousness should come every single day from every single person on Earth. It’s all about preserving the lovely planet we’re living in. Each of us is only 1 out of 7 billion world population (data as of March 2014), but if at least 1% are trying to do something about it, it would make a huge difference.

Earth Day – 22 April

In Jakarta, it’s the least we can do (IMHO, based on what I see and hear everyday):

Encourage 3R: Reduce-Reuse-Recycle. 3R is not just a theory that you read on textbooks of Environmental Studies.. it’s something you have to plant deep in your head and heart. Reduce the use of plastic bags and papers *remember that it takes hundreds of years for plastic bags to degrade (regardless of the fast decaying plastics) and that papers are made of trees*. Reuse any reusable materials – if it’s too complicated to produce any new stuff out of waste, we can start by reusing one-sided-printed papers and plastic bags. Recycle as many as possible – this might need some more effort, but at least you can support small home industries by giving your used materials away to them to recycle.

Garbage and waste management. This would need government and/or independent environmentalist funding, but this is the idea to minimize impacts to our Earth. The ever-increasing amount of garbage nowadays is getting alarming. I could see wall-e’s world in 10 or even less years.

Energy wise. What I see in Jakarta people is that we are very very not energy wise, especially when it’s related to electricity. We over-charge our batteries, over-use our air cons and lighting, over-whelm our cars (due to traffic, I know..). The awareness of energy use should be increased.

Let’s preserve our lovely planet – otherwise our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren won’t see the Earth the way we’re seeing it anymore, and the blame would be on us today’s generation.

Entering a new environment can feel like wearing a new pair of shoes: it causes blisters which would make us feeling uncomfortable. Some shoes will have the shoe leather softened and the blisters will be gone, making us feeling totally comfortable walking in them, just like our own feet. Some will not change the softness of the shoe leather and cause blisters the whole time, making us considering to never wear the shoes anymore and throw them away for ever.

Some people prefer to wear an old pair of shoes like forever so they will forever (?) be comfortable walking in them no matter how bad the shoes might look, while some would consider throwing away the old ones and bravely trying on the new ones, letting their feet be blistered once (and twice and thrice) again to finally feeling comfortable walking in them. It’s totally one’s preference of which way to go.

Humans are destined to learn and develop themselves throughout their lives. Adaptation is all about learning and developing oneself, and everyone has their own way to adapt. We just need to find out which one is the most suitable and comfortable way for us. 🙂